Wines Of The Week
White: 1998 Bethany Riesling, £5.49, Majestic (buy 2 = £4.99)
White: 1998 Bethany Riesling, £5.49, Majestic (buy 2 = £4.99)
From Australia's Barossa Valley, this is an extremely well-crafted dry riesling from the Schrapel family, who started making wines in 1977 after more than a century of grape-growing.
It's an aromatic white whose zesty, citrusy quality adds tantalising zing to the fruit, which is tinged with the petrolly undertones of the riesling grape. Perfect for sushi or sashimi.
Red: 1997 Château de Cazeneuve Le Roc de Mates, £8.99, Unwins
André Leenhardt is one of the leading lights of Pic-Saint-Loup, the enclave of vineyards around the shark's-fin peak of Saint-Loup, between the Cévennes mountains and the Mediterranean sea.
This high-quality, oak-aged red is typical of the style, with French oak adding plenty of aroma and spice to the wonderfully smooth, blackberry-fruit quality of the syrah.
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